While the wind picked up on Saturday afternoon, no one at the 33rd annual Watrous Fun Run Show and Shine minded the reprieve from last week’s heat. Cars, trucks, motorcycles and even more innovative vehicles lined the newly refurbished Main Street for the show.
The vehicles ranged from turn of the 20th century classics to more modern offerings, all with a unique set of design, interior or paint elements. Along with every tweak and trick out, every motor mount modification, there is a story of the wheeled wonder and its acquisition and restoration.
For meandering pedestrians, the first thing that called out was the colour of the exterior. Such was the case of the vibrant pink that drew us to the 1969 Dodge Dart belonging to Daina Lapworth and her husband of La Ronge.
“We actually bought it this colour. My husband was scrolling online in the middle of the night and he came across this and thought it’s the perfect car for my wife. We bought several old cars, but the stipulation was that the next one needs to be pink, so here she is.”
Listen to the podcast below to catch the amazing story of another vehicle owned the the Lapworths.
While the paint job needed no touch ups, the same could not be said for the electrical system, which left the Lapworths stranded on a couple of occasions. However, after the harness was replaced, with some quick additional touch ups, the vehicle was roadworthy and off to its first car shows.
Calling from across the street was a very shiny and uniquely adorned Cadillac Coupe de Ville, owned by Mark Blatz of Regina. The entire body had a chrome sheen with intricate etchings that really defied capture by a camera. The vehicle is a remarkable piece of engineering and design given its purchased state.
“We found it in 2019 in Lacombe, AB. It was white, and it was all in pieces, so this is a complete frame-off restoration. Over 60 pounds of Bondo came off the car originally. So, we got it down to the metal and a friend who was doing most of the work had this brilliant idea, off the gas tank of a Harley Davidson, to put etched artwork on it. It’s bare metal with hand etched steel and a marine protectant on it to stop rust.”
There’s over 120 hours of artwork alone on the exterior, Blatz said, and over 600 hours into the entire restoration.
For truck enthusiasts, just up the street was an eye-catching Ford F150 with a recognizable colour scheme that matched the unmistakable orange and brown hues of a familiar fast-food restaurant that catered to the drive-in crowd from the 50s to the 70s. The remarkable thing, says owner Gaeton Vachon of Wakaw, is that those colours are purely coincidental. In fact, the truck bears the same colours as the day he bought it from a dealership in Rosthern.
“September 8, 1978 – It's had a long and hard life. It was my only vehicle for a long time, and then it turned into a farm truck. Then it kind of got left and was actually stolen. I got it back, and I finally decided it’s one to redo.”
With the help of a friend who runs a body shop, the Vachon Family stripped the truck down, restored it with a new coat of paint, matching the original colours that bear a striking resemblance to the A&W theme. The A&W Root Bear mascot was proudly perched atop the air filter housing sealing up the motif.
Finally, a little further down and across the street sat a trio of unmistakable vehicles bearing license plates with the monikers Thing 1, Thing 2 and Thing 3. The small row of Chevrolet El Caminos, popular from the 60s to the 80s, presented an unusual hybrid of a coupe and a truck, a small utility vehicle that owners found both useful and stylish. For the McDonalds of Saskatoon and Warman, the El Camino cluster was a family affair.
“The El Camino was based on the Impala platform originally,” explained patriarch Brian McDonald. “They are really popular in rural areas like Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah – you find a lot of them there. They were appealing to the ‘civilian rancher’ who wanted both a car and a truck,”
For Brian’s daughter Courtney, the lure of the El Camino was not immediate. A car enthusiast, she said she was simply looking for a project vehicle.
“I was looking for something like a Nova or a Camaro because I already had a truck. My dad said, ’you can have that thing,’ and it was an El Camino. I said, ‘what is it – is it a truck or a car?’ But my friend at the time thought it was super cool, so we started fixing it up for high school grad.”
Once she began to learn the history of the vehicle, its intricacies, and its relatively rarity in the collecting world, the El Camino has become Courtney’s favourite vehicle. Her mom’s El Camino, labelled as Thing 2 completes the set.
Those are just a few of the fascinating stories attached to the vehicles and the owners who clearly love the feeling of their restorations and are happy to share the pride with other motor enthusiasts.
A host of other community events went on during the day prior to the ever-popular run to Manitou Beach which formed a colourful and eclectic parade along the roadway.
Enjoy some of our conversations and a photo gallery.